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• MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE: U.S., Russia need a fresh relationship
  The following editorial appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Wednesday, May 7:

• EM HUNTER: Don't believe the 'perfect mother' myth
  As I was watching my son's soccer game just before Mother's Day last year, a mom was trying to get her husband to get a chair out of the car. She implored him but he just looked at her. I couldn't help but chime in: "Hey, it's Mother's Day weekend!" He went to get the chair. On his way, he told me half-jokingly, "That was no fair." Everyone chuckled. A reminder about Mother's Day inspired him to do an unpleasant chore.

• JERRY LANSON: Hillary: It's time for a gracious exit
  Dear Hillary,

• CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Take half a loaf in Zimbabwe
  In Zimbabwe, despair flows with the force of the Victoria Falls on its northern border. The African country used to sparkle like the rainbow over the falls until strongman Robert Mugabe led it to economic, social, and political ruin. Now there's a chance to turn him out - if it isn't lost in a mist of despair.

• KAREN HELLER: The e-word infiltrates politicians' playbooks
  Does this presidential race offer fun for the whole family, or what?

• HOPE FERDOWSIAN: Fighting the food crisis one bite at a time
  Ntombi must be so hungry - and so desperate. That's all I can think as I read the endless stream of headlines about skyrocketing food prices. Amid the talk of abstract economic factors, her memory brings home the human cost of the worldwide food shortage.

• JOEL BRINKLEY: Trends in Iraq taking a grim downturn
  You'll hear none of this from Washington, but the trend lines in Iraq are turning down again.

• TATYANA SINITSYNA: Enterovirus threatens Beijing Olympics
  While the Beijing authorities were accusing the Dalai Lama of boycotting the Olympics, a real threat emerged as a surprise. It was enterovirus 71.

• MIAMI HERALD: Put ideology aside when disaster strikes
  At first, the world held its breath to see if the military junta ruling Myanmar was going to bow to the realities of the tragedy that struck there Saturday and ask for outside help - or just sit tight and remain isolated behind its iron veil, ignoring the immense suffering of its people in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

• TRUDY RUBIN: The looming threat to Israel lies within
  When Israel's independence was proclaimed in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, as leaders of the nascent state sang "Hatikva" (Hope), few could have imagined the vibrant state that exists today.

• LAWRENCE J. HAAS: Carter's kow-towing to terrorists blocks path to peace
  Appearing recently on al-Jazeera TV, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal made clear why he is pursuing a truce with Israel, and why anyone interested in a permanent Arab-Israeli peace should not be encouraged.

• JOHN B. QUIGLEY: Plain talk with Hamas may be best way to foster peace
  Jimmy Carter's recent foray to Damascus has netted him scorn, and few compliments. The former president, who held talks there with leaders of Hamas, stands accused of lending credibility to terrorists. The State Department has come down on Carter for ignoring the official U.S. policy, which is to isolate Hamas.

• LEWIS W. DIUGUID: Race now an uncomfortable part of Obama's campaign
  Black ministers historically have emphasized race. It's part of the church tradition dating back to slavery in which good black preachers decry racism, minister to the many souls racism wounds and preach the gospel of overcoming. Race has always been an inseparable part of the black church.

• OLEG MITYAYEV: President Medvedev's economic challenges
  Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, has inherited many economic problems, such as Russia's dependence on raw materials, monopolies, red tape and corruption, which are spurring prices and hindering economic development.

• JOHN C. BERSIA: U.S. must make extra room for Asia in new world order
  When a country has a complicated, problematic and history-burdened relationship with another nation - as China has with Japan - one would anticipate strained ties at best. Why, then, has Chinese President Hu Jintao undertaken a state visit to Tokyo?

• ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ: Israel at 60: So vilified, yet so deserving of praise
  As Israel celebrates 60 years of nationhood this Thursday, and looks ahead to the next 60 years, the world should appreciate what the Jewish state has accomplished.

• TOM DE LUCA: Hey, Democrats - nominate faster
  The Democratic Party should bring the presidential nomination battle to a conclusion as soon as possible. The fairest, most decisive way to do that is to move its convention from the end of August to the end of June.

• CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Endless but revealing primaries
  The Democrats' presidential contest resembles the movie "Groundhog Day." You wake up the morning after each contest, and little has changed. One candidate's up, the other down, while each retains the same supporters, and Barack Obama leads by a nose. Shouldn't this be over by now?

• SOMEWHERE IN AFRICA BLOG: Battle for Baghdad shifts to Sadr City
  The battle for Iraq has shifted to Sadr City, the massive slum in northwest Baghdad that's home to about two and a half million people. For the past six weeks, hardly a day has gone by without a report of Shiite insurgents in Sadr City taking aim at U.S. or Iraqi (mostly U.S.) troops. The entire area is under siege in a way that many other Baghdad neighborhoods have been before in this war - the difference being that probably no place is as big, or as hard to control, as Sadr City.

• Editorial Roundup
  Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

• CHRIS SATULLO: Candidates pump up the pandering; McCain and Clinton are hoping you'll buy it
  Let us talk of oil and IQ, of economics and elitism, of blue collars and empty words.

• KATHI WOLFE: President should sign bill outlawing genetic discrimination
  On May 1, Congress did something admirable. It passed the first civil rights law of the 21st century: the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

• MIAMI HERALD: Toward equal pay for equal work
  U.S. workers were the losers when the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act recently died in the Senate. The measure would have restored a common-sense deadline allowing employees to sue for pay discrimination whenever they become aware of it. The bill was named for a woman who lost her discrimination claim last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that she had not filed her lawsuit in time.

• DAVID A. LOVE: Supreme Court's voter ID decision is a blow to democracy
  By upholding Indiana's voter ID law, the Supreme Court struck another blow to civil rights and equality in the United States.

• CLAUDIA ROSETT: U.S. should help N. Koreans flee
  "We look forward to the moment when we can celebrate the blessings of liberty with the North Korean people," President Bush said in a statement released last week.